The Photo Workshop, Philadelphia

When I was learning about photography, two things no one ever really talked about were proportions and cropping. No one mentioned that my images would be cropped every time I ordered enlargements. What do you mean I won’t get the whole image that I see on this 4×6 print? It wasn’t until I was ordering enlargements through a mail-order lab that there were instructions to draw on the negative sleeve how you would like the image cropped that it started to sink in.

Why all the confusion and sizes that don’t match? Blame the changing industry, I suppose. Ansel Adams shot with 4×5 and 8×10 cameras. For him, making prints or enlargements of 8×10, 16×20, and 24×30 all make sense. Each size is proportional to the next so nothing gets cropped.

Along came the 35mm film cameras and suddenly the full frame is 4×6 (a proportion of 3:2). Doubling that you get 8×12 instead of 8×10 – now you’ve lost 2 inches of your image. And good luck finding a ready-made mat and frame in a store designed to fit an 8×12 print. If you frame your pictures very tightly (from edge to edge filled with your subject – think group photo), this quickly becomes a headache.

And now we have digital cameras. When they first arrived on the market, their full frame was 4×5.3, designed to fill your computer screen nicely (that’s a proportion of 4:3) but there was no connection with 35mm sizes that we all know and love. As the technology evolved, most manufacturers realized this problem and they added a setting to take pictures with the same proportion as the 35mm film. As a result, though, your megapixels go down. Don’t fret, these days there are plenty of megapixels to make good enlargements.

Here are some visual examples so you can see what it all means as you get prints and enlargements made of your favorite images.

Here’s my nephew, playing with some new toys this holiday season. I took this with a point-and-shoot digital set at 3:2 so all my prints would be 4×6 without cropping. When I want to get them printed at different sizes, the red areas are the parts I will lose. A good lab should adjust where the red areas are so you don’t lose too much from the subject (see the 5×7 examples).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What if I had shot at the 4:3 digital proportion? Then everything changes. Now you need to know if that was your camera’s setting. (All right, you don’t NEED to know…but it would be better if you did.) You could have your files all printed as 4×6 like you’re used to but then you will lose part of your image. Often this isn’t such a problem – unless you’ve filled the frame with your subject. Now my nephew has lost the top of his head and most of his toy truck. See the examples below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A custom lab can print these as 4×5.3 and save his head and toy. But if you were planning on framing that masterpiece, forget it – there are no 4×5.3 frames out there unless you go with a digital frame. And even those are sometimes widescreen (16:9) rather than the 4:3 proportion. Egad! What’s a person to do?

You could change the setting in your camera if that model allows it. Look for a pixel setting within a menu and anything that indicates the 3:2 proportion. If it’s a point-and-shoot digital, it’ll likely be the second one listed as the first one will be the largest, 4:3 proportion. If you’ll be putting your prints in an album, I’d recommend getting them printed as 4×5.3 and get the whole image. If the print needs to go in a frame, go with the traditional 4×6, just be aware that if your framing was tight, you may not like the results.

Finally, what to do if you want an enlargement but don’t want the image cropped. Then you’ll have some white edges on two sides. If it’s a 4×5.3 digital image and you’re ordering a 5×7, that white will be on the 7” side. If it’s a 4×6 image, the white will be on the 5” side. Whatever decision you make, be sure to tell the lab. We can’t guess what you’re thinking!

For the math-challenged, here’s what you need to know to keep the full frame of your image as you make enlargements:

If your original size is 4×6, the full frame sizes are: 8×12, 12×18, 16×24, 20×30 and 24×36.

If your original size is 4×5.3, the full frame sizes are: 8×10.6, 12×15.9, 16×21.2, 20×26.5 and 24×31.8.

Good luck finding a frame for any of these goofy sizes. You’re better off cropping to these more common sizes: 8×10, 16×20, 20×24, and 24×30.

Another set of circumstances arise when scanning an old photo. Now the print size could be square! Turning a square image into a 4×6 will require cropping or white edges. Again, think of where the print is heading – album or frame – to decide what to do. If it’s going in an album, I’d suggest keeping the image the same proportion when it’s square so there’s no cropping. But if it’s going into a frame, print it as a common size. Again, you could opt for the white borders on two sides so there’s no cropping. See the examples below.